Context in Storytelling

I listened to Gary Vaynerchuck's talk this morning, and it touches (tangentially) on ideas I'm interested in. The context in which the story is told - which I take to mean not only the medium, but telling personal stories. For instance in my project, since the story is loosely based on experiences from my life I think it's important for me to write, direct, and ideally act in the film. By doing all three as well as distributing directly to the audience - people will feel much more of a connection to the art. I've personally felt more connected to films in the past where I know the film came from a part of the actor or writer/directors life. Stallone wrote Rocky, and on a deeper level it was analogous to where he was at in his life (at least in my perception) and that's always made me feel a closer connection to the movie. Also see Hemingway and Farewell To Arms.

It's the same in music and stand-up comedy. The songs pulled from a musicians life or the bits pulled from a comedians life hit me harder than anything else.

The story behind the story, which connects the artists real life to the material, provides a context for the story which I think is essential for the kind of great, personal art which I'd like to create.

And I like the idea of storytelling in different ways. I've been thinking about different formats for my project, giving films to the audience in the way they want:

• Short films that add up to feature length when watched together


• Feature length film with associated shorts used to test the main thesis of the film before production


• Episodes that can be downloaded and watched on mobile apps where someone can pick and choose what parts of the story they want to watch, in whatever order they'd like

As far as marketing, he's spot on with speaking to the audience authentically and by adding value 75% of the time and asking for business occasionally. It's the same model I see with Joe Rogan, Austin Kleon, and many others.

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[via 99U & Filmmaker IQ & nofilmschool]